The start of something great; Open Aviation Map
Ever since I took my private pilots license the thought of how old and outdated my goverments aviation data is distributed have been coming back to me once ever now and then. The thought started to grow in me and today I've come far enough to say that I've started to do something with the problem. I've started an open source mapping project. You've might have heard of Open Street Map, the idéa goes like this:
Let's create a website and software infrastructure that makes it really easy for the lay man to create a map. Then, instead of having to bother about drawing all these ways, junktions and houses, we'll just have to create the software that makes it really easy to do.
The thing is that they've come real far on this thought. Just take a look at OpenStreetMap and look at your local area. Chanses are you see a really good map of roads, important houses etc. Now comes the part that makes this map so different from all the other maps around, Google, Bing etc.
- This map is make by volunteers that just enjoy the feeling of creating something important and complex.
- The map is completely free, you can do whatever you want with. You always have to share what you do with it under the same license. This makes sure that if someone does a really smart thing; everyone benefits from it which I think is really neat!
What I've done is blatantly copy OpenStreetMaps philosophy and software architecture and used it for aviation data. To take a look at the page go to OpenAviationMap. | It lets hobby aviators around the world stick their heads together and create a world map for flying! | Already before things are stable Germany has a load of data, thanks to Udo Geschonneck who's done a great job adding the navaids and started some aerodromes there. | If one man can create that much data in just a few days, then creating a world map maybe issn't such a crazy idéa afterall.